Baixa de Cassanje revolt
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The Baixa de Cassanje revolt was the first battle of the Angolan War of Independence. The uprising began on February 3, 1961. By February 4, the Portuguese authorities had successfully suppressed the revolt.[1]
On January 3, workers employed by Cotonang, a Portuguese-Belgium cotton plantation company, called on the Portuguese to improve their working conditions.[1] The peasants burned their identification cards and attacked Portuguese traders challenging the authorities. On February 4, protesters attacked São Paulo fortress, the largest prison and military establishment in Luanda, trying to free the prisoners. Seven policemen were killed. The Portuguese authorities killed forty rebels before gangs of white Angolans committed random acts of violence against the ethnic black majority living in Luanda's traditional slums (musseques).[2]
The Portuguese Army and Air Force put down the uprising in Baixa de Cassanje and blancked out the incident to the press. The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) said the Portuguese military killed ten thousand people in the massacre.[1] Conservative estimates are around 400 casualties.[2]
After independence from Portugal in 1975, the Angolan government designated February 4 a national holiday, "Colonial Repression Martyrs Day," in 1996 in remembrance of the attack.[1]
[edit] March 15 Baixa de Cassanje revolt
Portuguese authorities killed 49 people on February 5. On February 10, Portuguese authorities suppressed another unsuccessful attempt at freeing the prisoners. Bakongo farmers and coffee-plantation workers revolted on March 15, near Baixa de Cassanje, killing both white Angolans and black employees, burning plantations, bridges, government facilities, and police stations, and destroying barges and ferries. The Portuguese Air Force responded by bombing a 200-mile (320 km) area with napalm. During the rebellion, Portuguese authorities killed 20,000 people, including 750 white Angolans, within the first six months of 1961.[2]
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